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Time & Perspective Quote by Della Reese

"Sometimes I think the choir gets a little ticked with me because I haven't sung in a long time and I can sing"

About this Quote

Della Reese lands a joke that doubles as a quiet flex: she can stay away from the microphone for ages and still claim the gift. The line plays like backstage banter, but the subtext is about ownership. Her voice isn’t a job she clocks into; it’s an asset she carries, even when she’s not actively using it. That’s the kind of confidence performers earn through years of proving, and surviving, the fickle math of public attention.

The “choir” is doing extra work here. It suggests community, discipline, and shared labor - the group that shows up weekly, warms up, does the work. Reese positions herself as slightly outside that routine, a talent who can return on her own terms. “Gets a little ticked with me” keeps it playful, but it also acknowledges a tension artists often feel: when you’ve been celebrated as singular, the collective can resent your absence, or your ease, or both. She’s teasing that dynamic while refusing to apologize for it.

Context matters: Reese moved across music, television, and later ministry, a career shaped by reinvention and long gaps between “eras.” The quote reads like an insider’s wink about longevity - the idea that technique fades, trends change, but a real instrument can hibernate and still ring true. It’s humor as self-definition: I may not be performing right now, but don’t confuse silence with loss.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Reese, Della. (2026, January 17). Sometimes I think the choir gets a little ticked with me because I haven't sung in a long time and I can sing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-i-think-the-choir-gets-a-little-ticked-50496/

Chicago Style
Reese, Della. "Sometimes I think the choir gets a little ticked with me because I haven't sung in a long time and I can sing." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-i-think-the-choir-gets-a-little-ticked-50496/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sometimes I think the choir gets a little ticked with me because I haven't sung in a long time and I can sing." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-i-think-the-choir-gets-a-little-ticked-50496/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Della Add to List
Della Reese on Restraint and the Power to Sing
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About the Author

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Della Reese (July 6, 1931 - November 19, 2017) was a Musician from USA.

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